Status of Women Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[Luc Desnoyers, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

You talked about your three pillars: prosperity, violence and democracy.

As far as prosperity is concerned, you must know that we are in the midst of a major economic crisis. At present, women are the ones suffering the most from this crisis. Many have had to leave good jobs because they were at the bottom of the seniority list in many places. We look at companies like Nortel, which have shut down and where hundreds, if not thousands, of women worked. I could give you a whole list.

You seem very positive when you talk about prosperity for women, but in the field, we realize that there is not really prosperity for women. Irrespective of what you have been able to accomplish in the short time I have been on this committee, I have not had the feeling that women have played a much bigger role in Canada and in Quebec, because of the current economic crisis. There are currently no new jobs. We cannot hide from that fact. There is a financial bubble and a financial recovery. Before women once again take their place in our society, they will suffer a great deal, they will still be poorer.

There is regular discussion these days about pensions for women, among whom impoverishment is even greater. Women will reach retirement age with very, very little. Immigrant women are totally forgotten; they are at the lowest levels of our society and are extremely poor. We get no sense that there is a significant push to change that. There is definitely an economic crisis, and that has to be taken into account. I would like to hear a bit of what you have to say on that subject.

When you talk about prosperity, you seem to be saying that there is a great deal of momentum on this front, whereas we don't feel that on a day-to-day basis in our society.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Yes. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one and a half minutes, Mr. Desnoyers.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

To address your last point, I highlighted for you the gender gap report. It's actually the World Economic Forum gender gap report, which highlighted Canada in women's economic participation, in which we saw significant changes in Canada. So it doesn't have to be me that you believe. I'm happy to provide you with a copy of that report.

Of course, our country and our government is focused on the economic crisis--that's been our number one priority since we became the government--and working to implement the economic action plan. We are focused on all Canadians, and of course women are a part of that. They are more than 53% of the population now, so they do benefit from that significantly.

On pension income-splitting, you talked about senior women. The pension income-splitting that our government introduced was well received.

On immigrant women, you're quite right, they do face significant barriers. They face a lot of barriers.

Since we're still in the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women, I think it's a good opportunity for me to highlight for members around the table that today I made an announcement alongside all the provinces and territories, the provincial representatives for the shelter networks in each of the provinces, and including aboriginal representation. We announced a new partnership today to ensure that they will have a national voice. They're forming a national group, and I'm going to be funding a project that's going to allow them to train each other and share best practices, with a strong focus on immigrant women.

[Luc Desnoyers, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I just have one little question.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

For immigrant women in different part of the countries, sometimes it can be cultural issues that they're dealing with. Others are looking for the best practices that are carried on and whether they can learn from that.

So that was a significant announcement today. It's the first time it has ever happened, where we've been able to bring all of these people together and come out with such a significant partnership. I'm sure that regardless of partisan stripe here, you'll applaud that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry, Mr. Desnoyers. You have gone over time.

Ms. Hoeppner.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

I want to change direction a little bit with you. You spoke a little bit about encouraging women to get involved in politics, in the political process. I know that we have taken some great strides and made investments in Equal Voice and providing leadership so that we can mentor young women and get them involved.

I'm wondering if you can comment on the importance of allowing women with a diverse view on a variety of issues to be able to speak. I'm going to give you an example. There are hundreds of thousands of rural women, farming women, aboriginal women, women in the military, women across this country who, for example, believe the long gun registry needs to end. They have been told this week to sit down, be quiet, and don't dare attend an event, don't dare attend a memorial, because we disagree with your view. I'm wondering how you see that as productive and if you see that as helping women get involved.

I'm going to say this. I think women need to know that this can be a battlefield, and you need to be able to defend what you believe in. To be told to sit down and be quiet, time after time after time... Can you comment on what message that sends to young women, to older women, to Canadian women?

Thank you.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Candice, I actually agree with everything you've just said. I don't think that's going to surprise anybody.

Every time I have an opportunity to meet with women across the country, I raise this issue. I talk about the partisan nature of this House and how difficult it is right now, still, for women, tor the things we want to accomplish. If we could just lay down our partisan swords and work together, think about how much farther we could be. Unfortunately, there are some of us around the table who are not interested in doing that.

I can recall, when in opposition, when we sat around this table of the status of women committee, that we did not behave that way, that we did not carry on in that manner because we knew it was inappropriate. We were there not just for ourselves or for our own political stripe, but for all women. I believe we have a responsibility to do that.

I thank you for highlighting that.

The reason I support Equal Voice is that they're doing an exceptional job of leaving that at the door. It's about teaching women and showing them how they can get themselves elected, free from the policy discussion. I think that's key. We don't need any special treatment as women. Just show us how, and we soar. That's why I support Equal Voice.

I thank you very much for highlighting that.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I know we're talking about issues pertaining to women that women are speaking about, but what I'm thinking as well is that there are a lot of women who want to bring up issues besides motherhood and apple pie. They want to bring up issues that are not traditional women's issues. How do we say, hey, you might have disagreement on that policy...? I think it's fair game to disagree with policy, but how do we still allow their voice to be heard, where they're not shot down or where they're told to be quiet because they don't follow a certain political line of thinking, or where they dare introduce a policy that is not a typical women's issue? I want to talk about those things. I'm wondering about that as well, the non-traditional women's issues.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Well, it's interesting, because there have been lots of conversations about free votes and lots of conversations in support of that, but at the same time, there has not been support for people to be free to have their own opinion or to share the opinions of the constituencies and those they represent. I think that's actually shameful behaviour. I don't think that represents Canada and the democracy we live in. I find that to be very sad.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I have a question.

We've heard often in the last little while that the word “equality” has been removed from the mandate of the Status of Women. Is this true?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

The word “equality” is in the mandate. It's very clearly there. This conversation goes on and on. I know the opposition likes to bring it up and raise it and say it, but the fact of the matter is that it is there. It is there.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you very much.

Do I have any more time, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, you have two and a half minutes.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Okay, good. Thank you.

I'm wondering too, as we're looking ahead, what changes has the government made to women's programs, and what were the outcomes? Looking at what you've done in the past, what were the outcomes, and what do you see those changes accomplishing in the future?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Sure.

It has been noted that there have been a number of changes made. We focus more on the grassroots organizations so they can deliver concrete support to the women in the communities, but it's the most vulnerable women. Even to our Bloc colleague and his question, he was talking about the women we serve. It's actually the most vulnerable women in society that our projects are focused on getting to. There are lots of government programs out there, but this is very special and very significant—projects that help 10 or 12 women in one small community, projects that help 20 women in another community, projects that will help 30 young girls in another small community.

The smaller projects are more focused on taking them through the training, the knowledge transfer, the things they need to get themselves out of these really difficult situations that they're in. We know that the three pillars are all interdependent of each other. So you have to have that going on at the same time. Sometimes these organizations have two or three projects going on, sometimes they've done it in the past and they've moved into another pillar, and sometimes you can see those women moving through all of those different opportunities to grow as women get themselves out of these difficult situations.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

So if I'm hearing you correctly, what you're saying is that this funding and the projects being funded are actually reaching women directly, as opposed to through administration.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Absolutely, or as opposed to another research paper. We've made a lot of changes. The money is focused on helping individual women. You have to identify exactly how many women you're going to be reaching out to, what exactly you're going to be doing with them. There are stronger accountability measures in place.

At the same time, it's not causing difficulty for the organizations. Lots of times when they were trying to receive government funding, a lot of the applications and forms could take a long time to fill out. These project application forms present a much more transparent and much easier opportunity for them to fill them out in order for them to be successful in the end. It's not a long, drawn-out process where they have to spend thousands of dollars to be able to fill out the application.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Is that the feedback you're getting from women's groups?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Absolutely. I've got significant amounts of correspondence, quotes, telling us that they like and very much support the changes we have made at Status of Women Canada.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I think it's important. What we've done is move into the 21st century.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Absolutely.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We're not in 1974 or 1975 anymore--

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Absolutely.